AUGUST 2025
. 26
Father-and-son Wagyu royalty David and Ben Blackmore on their farm in Victoria’s North East and (clockwise from right) a Blackmore Wagyu sirloin steak at Margaret restaurant in Sydney’s Double Bay; action at the Meredith Dairy in western Victoria; Kidder Williams chairman David Williams; and a dairy goat at Meredith Dairy.
FROM PAGE 25 A USTRALIA has a long and proud reputation for wowing the world with sun-kissed fruits and veg, ocean-fresh seafood, premium meats and high-quality wine products, and has come a long way since the ’80s when Vegemite and VB were the most famous food exports. Today, sophisticated agrifood brands like the Cameron’s Meredith Dairy, Penfold’s, Blackmore Wagyu, CopperTree Farms, Barambah Organics, Tassal and Huon Aqua, Outback Lamb and Bruny Island Cheese grace menus, supermarket shelves and kitchen cupboards around the world. Dr Rajendra Adhikari, senior lecturer in agribusiness at the University of Queensland, says that Australian agrifood brands are highly sought after and Aussie farmers have a natural leg up thanks to their global reputation. “Australian agrifood businesses are highly regarded internationally, in fact one of the top countries in the world, because Australia as a brand, is seen as producing high- quality, safe, clean products,” he says. “Australia consistently ranks in the top 10 of the IPSOS- Anholt Nation Brands Index, which measures global standing and perception, and our locations are notable and marketable in their own right; for example, Tasmania, Queensland, the outback, these are all places that have a strong association with sun, nature, wilderness, blue sky, clean, green places, they are very desirable locations. “Australians are seen as hardworking, skilled, fun and most importantly honest, which also helps Australian brands when they are doing business overseas.” W AGYU pioneer David Blackmore will proudly tell you that he started his business with nothing. “We had two carcasses a month to sell,” he says. “We didn’t even own any land, we had our house and 50 acres (20 hectares) when we imported our first Wagyu genetics, and that was it.” Today, Blackmore runs 4000 cattle across four properties, and produces 80-90 carcasses a month, and his brand Blackmore Wagyu is a must-have on the menu of the world’s best restaurants. The fifth-generation cattleman is at his desk at the family farm in Alexandra, in Victoria’s North East, looking out to the dozens of towering red gums lining the Goulburn River just beyond his window. The wall behind him, in the old dairy he converted into an office, tells the Michelin-starred story of Blackmore Wagyu’s success. Framed menus from the likes of Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry in Napa Valley, Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck, Curtis Stone’s Maude, and Neil Perry’s Margaret (voted second-best steakhouse in the world) sit comfortably alongside a string of awards from Delicious magazine, the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, the coveted Howard W
Yelland Award for service to the Australian beef industry and his recent admission to the Wagyu Hall of Fame. “Our beef was served at the Oscars by Wolfgang Puck,” he says proudly. Incredibly, Blackmore didn’t spend a dollar engaging advertising experts or brand marketers to establish Blackmore Wagyu. To the contrary, it was the furthest thing on his mind in the 1990s when he imported the first 100 per cent full-blood Wagyu genetics into Australia. He says it was a laser-like focus on producing the best- quality Wagyu beef, and supplying it to the very best chefs, that built his now revered brand. “Neil Perry has been a big client of ours for more than 20 years and he helped put us on the map. I’m very proud that he’s still a client today,” says Blackmore, explaining how the renowned chef gave him a lucky break, by showcasing his premium Wagyu at a charity dinner in Sydney. “Thomas Keller and Heston Blumenthal were the celebrity chefs that night, and they’d never tasted Wagyu before. They both fell in love with it, and both wanted to import it to their own restaurants. Thomas Keller said to me ‘I’m going to put this beef on my menu and I’m calling it David Blackmore Wagyu’,” he says proudly pointing to
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator